Method of operating internal-combustion engines



D. L. WINTERS. METHOD OF OPERATING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED OCT 15,1919. 1,342,656. PatentedJune 8,1920.

3 SHEETSSH EET I.

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D. L. WINTERS. 4 METHOD OF OPERATING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES. APPLICATION FILED ocr 15. 1919.

1,342,656. Patented June 8, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

D. L. WINTERS.

METHOD OF OPERATING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES. I

APPLICATION FILED OCT I5, IQIQ. 1,342,656. PatentedJune 8, 1920.

3 SHtEISSHEET 3.

|||||4|| IIIIIIII UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID L. WINTERS, OF EDGEWATER, MARYLAND.

METHOD OF OPERATING INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

Application filed October 15,1919.

Engines, of which the following as a specification.

This invention relates to a method of operating two cycle internal combustion engines and has for its primary object to providea method of'operation whereby two or more charges may be combined within the cylinder before ignition takes place when combustion would otherwise be ineffective or detrimental to the operation of the motor, means being provided whereby such method of operationmay be carried out.

A further object of this invention is to provide means whereby anefl'ective charge is formed by the:accumulation of a series of less effectivecharges within the cylinder, the ignition being retarded in predeterminedrelative *proportion-to'a restricted flow of such accumulated charge.

With the foregoing and other objectsin view as will from time totime hereinafter appear this invention consists in a method of operating internal combustion engines and means therefor, as described in the following specification and :more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which the same reference characters indicate the same parts wherever used,

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly broken away for illustration, of an internal combustion engine.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the wiring.

Fig. 3 is adetail.

Fig. 4is a section through the timer showing the contacts.

Fig.5 shows amodified formof the device.

Fig.6 is a section through a furtherzmodification.

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of an additional modification.

Fig. 8 is a top plan view of a portion of Fig.

Fig. 9 is a detailshowing operation, and

Fig. 10 is a side-elevation of a further modification.

10 designates the cylinder ofa two cycle motorhe ng' heusual'crank s f 1 r n Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 8, 1920.

Serial No. 330,796.

by piston rod 12 and the fly wheel 13. On the shaft 11 is a bevel gear 14 meshing with a second gear 15, which in the construction illustrated in Figs. 13 is of twice the di ameter of the gear 14 in order to rotate the timer shaft 16 once for every two times of the gear 14 as in a four cycle motor. Gear 15 is suitably housed at 17 which extends to incase the shaft 16 as at 18 terminating in 1 timer 20 constructed in the usual manner with handle 21 and ground terminal 22, arm 23, carrying contact roller 24, a pair of contact blocks 25 and 26 over which the roller 24 passes during rotation.

Electrical connections 27-28 extend from the contact blocks 25-26 respectively, the connection 27 forming a circuit with the wire 29, batteries 30, wire 31, coil 32, ground wire 33, and the wire 34 to plug 35, when the roller 24and block 25 are in contact.

The connection 28 runs from block 26 to a contact plate 36 on a lever 37, frictionally mounted at 38, preferably on the wall of the intake 39, which extends from the carbureter 40, the lever 37 being insulated from the intake39 at-the pivot 38.

The throttle valve 41 is operated by a lever 42 which carries a contact 43 which can be caused to engage the plate 36 by a movement of the lever 37, the wire 29 being in connection with the contact 43, so that a complete circuit is established when plate 36 is engaged thereby, and the roller 24 engages the' block 26.

The above description is of the device as shown in Figs. 1 to 4.

In the construction shown in Fig. 5 the gear 15 is replaced by the gear 44 of the usual one to one ratio and drives the shaft 16 ac-. cordingly, on which is suitably mounted a worm 45 in driving engagement with a toothed disk 46111011116861 to revolve upon an aXle 47 carried by a bracket 48 upon the wall of the cylinder 10, a washer 49 being provided upon the axle 47 and fast therewith, so as not to rotate with the disk 46, but to form a contact therewith and to carry the wire 50 in circuit with batteries 30.

.The disk 46 comprises a series of contact surfaces, the outer of which, 51, is a complete metallic contact surface, the second 52, having insulating segments 53 acting as circuit breakers andarrangedas to present the ignition impulses of a four cycle timing, the third, 54, of a six cycle, and the fourth, 55, of-an eight cycle motor.

Mounted on the bracket 48 and insulated therefrom is a contact plate 56 in contact with the surface 51 of the disk 46, and a switch lever 57 is frictionally secured to the throttle valve pivot 58, and grounded thereto, being adapted to form a sliding contact with the member 56 until disengaged therefrom, after which it can be placed incontact with the surfaces, 52, 54, or 55, at will.

A lever 59 is provided for operating the throttle valve 41 by rotating the throttle pivot 58, such arrangement permitting of both independent and simultaneous operation of the switch lever 57 and throttle valve control lever 59.

In this construction the ordinary timer 20 is employed, having the one block 26 and the wire 28 therefrom.

In the construction shown in Fig. 6 the timer shaft 16 carries a gear 60 meshing with a second gear 61 of twice the diameter of the gear 60, and carried by a bracket 62 on the cylinder 10, a secondary bracket 63 supporting a pair of contact fingers 64, 65 in frictional engagement with the upper face 66 of the gear 61 which is formed of two conductor segments 67-68, acting to operate as a timer, the finger 64 carrying a wire 69 extending to the lever 37 when contact may be broken with the lever 42 as described for the operation of the construction shown in Figs. 1-4 and diagrammatically illustrated at 70 in Fig. 6 and. thus cutting out one of thesparking impulses.

Finger 65 is connected in the primary cir cuit by the wire 71.

In the construction shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 the gear 44 is of equal ratio to the gear 14 and drives the timer shaft 16 in the usual manner, but such shaft is providedwith an annular collar 73 which carries a binding post 74 and a spring finger 75.

' A bracket 76 is secured on the cylinder 10 and carries a shaft 77 upon whidh is mounted a member 78 free to oscillateupon the shaft 77 and formed of suitable insulating material, preferably fiber, as a semicircular bloek having pointed ends 79-80 and carrying conductor plates 81-82 on the upper and lower sides thereof, said plates being provided with binding posts 83 and 84 respectively. i

The member 78 projects into the path of the spring finger in such a manner that the finger alternately wipes the surfaces 81-82 thereof and oscillates the member 78 so as to alternately wipe the'upper and lower plates 81 and 82, such oscillatory movement of the member 78 being caused by the spring finger 75 depressing and raising the end 79 of the member 78' by'its travel upon the inclines 85 and 86. i

The construction shown in Fig. 10 comprises a pair of brackets 87-88 in which is journaled a horizontal shaft 89 driven by a gear 90 meshing with gear 14 and twice the diameter thereof.

Slidably mounted on'the shaft 89 is a collar 91 rotatable therewithand provided with a pair of cams 92-93, cam 92 being a segment cam so arranged as to operate the ignition control rod 94 of the igniter 95 to present four cycle impulses, and the cam 93 is constructed to control the rod 94 to present two cycle ignition impulses.

Collar 91 is slidably shifted on the shaft 89 by a lever 96 to cause either of'cams 92 or 93 to operate the rod 94. I

In the carburation of air when the charge is throttled to such an extent that it reduces the velocity of the air carrying such charge to a point at which it will not pick up or sufficiently vaporize the correct proportion of fuel, it follows that the atoms of fuel in such a charge are greatly increased in size and correspondinglydecreased in number, and as the use of such a charge is always accompanied by insufficient compression to bring these atoms close'enough together to insure effective ignition. combustion and eX- pansion are frequently retarded to such an extent that the charge is wasted, and in a two cycle moterit is often the case that combustion is retarded to such an extent that the maximum amount of heat is being generated when 'the intake port opens. When this occurs, the charge in the crank case is ignited, and the 'expansionthereof usually stops the engine on the succeeding down stroke of thepiston. Should however the momentum of the'fiywheel be sufficient to force the piston down against such pressure in the crank case a portion of this dead charge in the crank case is forced, to the cylinder and it follows that the momentum of the flywheel must be sufficient to compress both this and the following charge before it could receive another impulse. Bearing in mind that this occurs when, and because the throttle valve'is closed toan eX- tent that prevents the admission of an effective charge, it will. be-readily seen that it is quite impossible for the motor to do other than stop when 'a back fire occurs under this condition of operation.

Also, it is well known by operators of two cycle motors, that when the charge is successfully throttled beyond this point, the motor will receive uniform and effective impulses every second revolution, and that the danger from backfire is again present upon a slightly increased opening of. the throttle valve, under this last named condition of operation.

While the decrease in velocity of the air through the carbureter is mostly responsible for the poor mixture under this condition of operation, the size of the combustion chamber renders it impossible to properly compress this charge before ignitiontakes place, resulting in an operation of the motor which is extremely unreliable. When therefore the cycle of operations per num-' ber of revolutions is decreased under any fixed throttled condition of operation, it fol: lows that both the flexibility and reliability of operation will be greatly increased.

As one of the objections to the use of two cycle engines has been that they could not be throttled down to the same extent as a four cycle engine I have consequently provided a method of operation by which a two cycle engine can be successfully throttled down to run as slowly as a four cycle engine.

The operation of'the construction shown in Figs. 1 to 4 is as follows:

The lever 37 is placed in such a position that the contacts 43 and 36 are engaged and the throttle valve 41 open when the motor is started and the throttle valve closed slowly until the volume of the charge passing therethrough can not be further restricted without causing unreliable operation, when the lever 37 is moved far enough to break the contact between the motors 43 and 36 which breaks the circuit, which includes the block 26, causing the motor to receive an ignition impulse on every second revolution, and as the charge presented to the motor is now composed of two smaller but effective charges a motor can be throt tled down to a point where one-half the present volume of a charge is furnished, thus reducing the speed while increasing the reliability of operation.

In the construction shown in Fig. 5 the starting operation is the same, the switch member 57 being in contact with the plate 56 until such a time as the motor is throttled down as above described to the point of ineffectiveness of charge when the switch lever can be shifted to the contact surfaces 52, 54 or 55, as the necessity arises in order between members 43 and 36, the starting and throttling operation being identical with that described in the construction of Figs. 1 to 4 the breaking of the contact between the members 43 and 36 serving to cut out the plate 82 which may be then wiped by the spring fingers 7 5 without causing any electrical impulse to flow therethrough, the sole impulse provided to the engine in this operation being furnished by a contact of the spring finger 75 with the plate 81.

The operation of Fig. 10 has been described.

I realize that many well known electrical, mechanical, and pressure governed movements may be employed to change the cycle of operations to increase the flexibility and reliable operation of the motor as described, and the appended claims are construed to cover these.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In the operation of an internal combustion two cycle engine,the method which consists in causing two or more charges to accumulate in the cylinder of said engine before permitting igniton thereof.

2. In the operation of an internal combustion two cycle engine the method which consists in causing two or more restricted charges to accumulate in the cylinder of said engine before permitting ignition thereof.

3. In the operation of an internal combustion two cycle engine the method which consists in causing two or more excessively restricted charges to accumulate in the cylinder of said engine before permitting ignition thereof.

4. In the operation of an internal combustion two cycle engine the method which consists in causing two or more charges to accumulate in the cylinder of said engine before permitting ignition thereof and then igniting said accumulated charges.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in the presence of a witness.

DAVID L. WINTERS.

W'itness K. E. KLEIN. 

